CASTLE IN THE CROSSHAIRS

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The day before the health care vote, the Democrats
gave Mike Castle the full treatment.

The Democrats had their sights on 32 Republicans in
the House of Representatives, all of them coming from
districts President Barack Obama carried, but they saved
something extra for the nine-term congressman and
ex-governor from Delaware.

Castle was the only one that had the Democratic
National Committee cranking up a press conference Friday
and enlisting local leaders like state Chair John
Daniello and state Rep. Helene Keeley to take him on.

Why Castle? Maybe because he is running for the
Senate next year in a race that looks like his opponent
will be the son of the Democratic vice president who had
the seat himself for 36 years?

"It was all about the Senate," said Priscilla
Rakestraw, the Republican national committeewoman for
Delaware. "The Democratic National Committee and the
Delaware Democrats are afraid a) that Beau will run and
b) that he won't, that he will run and they'll lose the
seat or that he won't run and they'll lose the seat."

The Democrats did not even try to be subtle about
their press conference having as much or more to do
about Castle's candidacy than about his vote Saturday on
the health care legislation.

"We don't think think this is going to help him in
his bid for the Senate next year," said Alec Gerlach,
the Democratic National Committee's regional press
secretary, who handles Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
Washington, D.C. and points west.

Not that Castle scared. He voted no along with all
the other House Republicans -- except for Rep. Anh
"Joseph" Cao, a freshman who was a fluky winner in an
overwhelmingly Democrat district in New Orleans. It was
what Cao had to do not to look like a human levee to a
constituency that was walloped by Katrina.

The shape of the roll call was not a surprise. The
Democrats knew all along they would have to find the
votes within their own majority, and they did.

For all of the hoopla from the Democratic National
Committee, the press conference zeroed on Castle came
across as
rather colorless.

Daniello said what he had to say -- "I hope Rep.
Castle chooses to stand with the people he represents
and not his party" -- but he sounded like a man trapped
in an infomercial. He bailed as soon as he could.

It did not help that Daniello mistakenly referred to
Castle as "Senator Castle" before correcting himself.
Maybe it was Freudian, or maybe it was a flashback.
Daniello was a Cabinet officer in the mid-1970s when
Castle was, in fact, "Senator Castle" -- a state
senator.

Daniello said later he meant to call Castle a
"wanna-be senator" but mangled it.

The Republican Party did not fare much better that
day. Once the Democrats muscled up on Castle, the
Republicans tried to change the subject by bringing up
John Carney,
the former Democratic lieutenant governor running for
the Congress, so far with no Republican opposition.

Tom Ross, the Republican state chair, issued a
statement demanding to know where Carney stood -- "Is
John Carney going to side with Nancy Pelosi and
extremist liberals, or will he side with Delawareans who
want to keep their health care decisions between them
and their doctor?"

It did not exactly resonate.

"I did not see it, and nobody called me about it,"
Carney said.

Meanwhile, Castle himself tried a more measured
approach.

Health care legislation, he said, should expand
coverage and cut costs, but the Democrats are not doing
enough to cut costs and the Republicans are not doing
enough to expand coverage. He voted against the House
bill because he did not think it contained costs enough.

Nor did Castle's no vote Saturday mean no never. "Not
necessarily. I will pay attention to what they do in the
Senate and obviously from there, what happens in
conference," he said.

It sounded like his answer to the Democrats' press
conference. Moderation in pursuit of the Senate is no
vice, not here in Delaware, anyway.